The top officials in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) were reappointed on June 13 as Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed office for a third-term last week.
P.K. Mishra, Principal Secretary to the PM, was retained for a second term and National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval for a rare third term while two advisors Amit Khare and Tarun Kapoor have been reappointed for two-year tenures.
After retaining his top ministerial team, the Prime Minister has also signalled continuity in governance by retaining Mr. Mishra, an old hand who worked with him in Gujarat, and since 2014 when Mr. Modi took over as Prime Minister.
The Centre’s top personnel body, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) headed by the approved Prime Minister, approved the appointments of Mr. Mishra and Mr. Doval with effect from June 13, and said their tenures would be coterminous with the Prime Minister’s term or until further orders, whichever is earlier.
Mr. Mishra (75) is a retired 1972-batch Gujarat cadre IAS officer, who had served as Mr. Modi’s principal secretary when took over as Gujarat CM in 2001. He joined the PMO in 2014 first as Additional Principal Secretary and subsequently as Principal Secretary since 2019.
Mr. Doval (79) is a retired 1968-batch IPS officer, and has been functioning in the same capacity since 2014.
As per the ACC notification issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), both will have Cabinet rank in the table of precedence in the PMO.
In the PMO, Dr. Mishra looks after the central administration handling personnel matters and administration matters while Mr. Doval is tasked with national security and foreign affairs.
Also read: PM Modi reviews security situation with Ajit Doval
Additionally, two advisors in the PMO, Mr. Khare and Mr. Kapoor have also been reappointed.
Mr. Khare is a retired 1985 batch Jharkhand cadre IAS officer. He served as Secretary, Education and Information and Broadcasting and after superannuation, he joined the PMO as advisor.
Similarly, Mr. Kapoor is retired 1987 batch Himachal Pradesh cadre officer, who served as Secretary, Petroleum in the Centre before he joined the PMO post his retirement.
In the PMO, Mr. Khare deals with subjects related to social sectors while Mr, Kapoor handles infrastructure related matters.
